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Gangs of New York, an Example of Naturalism Essay

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In the beginning, it seems unlikely that Gangs of New York will be an example of naturalism. Unlike To Build a Fire or Open Boat, the whole story of Gangs of New York happens in a civilized area, and nobody is in a case of danger because of the nature. Naturalism is implicit in this article. But being implicit does not mean it is ineffective. Instead, the idea of naturalism within this article is more confound than other two stories we studied before. The very first scene, a cave is hidden underneath a mission, somehow revealed the naturalist’s idea of brute within. Cave is a symbol of primitive, brute, and undeveloped. Mission is a symbol of civilized, peaceful, and developed. Another similar dramatic reminding of this idea is priest…show more content…
This is proven by the canon firing. The canon hits whatever is in its way like the nature destroys whatever is in its way. Canon kills both the Dead Rabbits and Nativists. Before the indifference of the nature, fighters of both group started to help each other to get out of the filed. The most effective scene is the end of the story. Behind Vallon and Cutting’s graves, New York City evolves. As Amsterdam said, nobody is going to remember the fight between Dead Rabbit and Natives. Their story is like stories written on the beach, being washed away by the waves of history. Dead Rabbits, Nativist, Vallon, Cutting, Amsterdam, all their dreams, struggles, and efforts will be concentrated into just a few words and written in the history book. Human can make little impact in the long history of the universe. The nature is indifferent toward Vallon and Cutting. Either group winning the war is not going to change the history. Unlike the two stories we read in class, everyone struggles for survival, the naturalism idea in the movie is represented by people’s lust and greed, the desire for dominance of pleasure. People do whatever possible to gain those things. Priest Vallon fights for the rights of immigrants. On the surface, he is a priest. But he would not mind killing someone to achieve his goal. The crucifix on the one hand is Vallon’s civilized side. But when civilized mean cannot achieve his goal, the other hand holding a knife is
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